''The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'' is a British anthology mystery television series produced by

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

which was originally broadcast on the ITV Network. There were two series of 13 fifty-minute episodes; the first aired in 1971, the second in 1973. The programme presented adaptations of short mystery, suspense or crime stories featuring, as the title suggests, detectives who were literary contemporaries of

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

. ''The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'' took its inspiration – and title – from a series of published anthologies by Hugh Greene, younger brother of author

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

and the former

director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the BBC. Greene is credited on the programme as a creative consultant.

Recurring characters

* Douglas Wilmer as Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen (2 episodes) *

Peter Vaughan Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage. He is perhaps best known ...

as Horace Dorrington (2 episodes) *

Kenneth Colley Kenneth Colley (born 7 December 1937) is an English film and television actor whose career spans over 60 years. He came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in the '' Star Wars'' films '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ' ...

as Farrish (2 episodes) * Petronella Barker as Miss Parrot (2 episodes) * Peter Barkworth as Martin Hewitt (2 episodes) * Ronald Hines as Jonathan Pryde (2 episodes)

Episode list

Series 1 (20 Sep – 9 Dec 1971)

Series 2 (29 Jan – 7 May 1973)

DVD availability

The first series was released on a 4-disc Region 2 DVD set by Network Distributing on 15 June 2009.

Acorn Media RLJE International Ltd, d/b/a Acorn DVD, a British company that publishes and distributes DVDs, as well as selling home-video products and streaming videos with a particular focus on British television. History Launched in 1997, Acorn Media U. ...

released a Region 1 version of this set on 1 September 2009. Series Two was released on a Network DVD 4-disc Region 2 release on 15 February 2010;Network DVD
/ref> Acorn followed with a Region 1 version on 27 April.

Bibliography

* Greene, Hugh; editor. ''The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''. Pantheon Books, 1970; * Greene, Hugh; editor. ''Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''. Pantheon Books, 1971; * Greene, Hugh; editor. ''Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''. Pantheon Books, 1973; * Greene, Hugh; editor. ''The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''. Pantheon Books, 1976;

Notes

References

External links

*
''The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''
at the BFI Film & TV database

at Television Heaven {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV series), The 1970s British anthology television series 1970s British crime television series British detective television series 1971 British television series debuts 1973 British television series endings 1970s British drama television series ITV mystery shows English-language television shows 1970s British mystery television series Television series based on short fiction